An in person event.

Literary critic, Eddie Arnavoudian, will speak about the 10th to the 14th centuries, a remarkable era of Armenian cultural history known as the Early Armenian Renaissance. Despite immense geopolitical turmoil this was an era of major intellectual, artistic and economic development throughout Armenia, including flourishing universities, large scale book production, and architectural marvels as evident in Ani – “the city of 1001 churches”. Most significantly, Armenian philosophers, historians, thinkers and poets such as Grigor Narekatsi, Hovhannes the Philosopher, Aristaghes Lastivertsi, Vartan Aygektsi, Nerses Shnorhali and many others contributed to the emergence of an enduring humanist and rationalist critical thought fired by indignation against iniquity and injustice. Their legacy retains urgent value and example for our own times when positive thought has all too frequently given way to passivity and fatalism in the face of crises afflicting humanity.  

Eddie Arnavoudian

Eddie Arnavoudian is passionate about literature, history and politics. Since the mid-1990s when he remastered the wonderful Armenian language, he has focussed his energies on Armenian literature, history and politics. Across two decades and more he has contributed comments and evaluations that have been published on The Critical Corner that is an integral element of the hugely valuable Groong/Armenian News Network founded and edited by Asbed Bedrossian.